


A Pantheon of Problems

by maxsglutes



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Amazons - Freeform, Bilingual Character(s), Biracial Character(s), Greek and Roman Mythology - Freeform, Japanese Culture, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, Magic, Misandry, Multi, Past Relationship(s), Rating May Change, Slow Burn, lgbtq character(s), past trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 10:23:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14211090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maxsglutes/pseuds/maxsglutes
Summary: Finn's got a lot on his plate. From raising his little sister, to keeping a job, to dealing with all kinds of magical nuisances, he's barely managing to keep his head above water. When a fateful encounter interrupts his daily struggle, Finn is suddenly plunged back into a world he was trying to distance himself from.He's no stranger to adversity, but these Amazons might just drive him insane!





	A Pantheon of Problems

**Author's Note:**

> A day of rotten luck leads to a monster attack. Typical.

Seattle had too many hipsters for Finn’s taste– a bunch of no-good hacks, the lot of them!

 

Okay, well, that wasn’t entirely true. Finn was a relatively understanding guy. He liked to describe himself as a people-person. But there was always that _one person_ that managed to sink their claws into his nerves and refuse to let go. His landlord was one such person.

 

His apartment’s landlord, Chip, was a laid-back forty-something year old with long sandy blond hair and an even longer scraggly beard. His mustache was twisted at the ends, handlebar style. Always dressed in some kind of plaid, Chip liked to accessorize with a beanie, or square black-rimmed glasses (which Finn doubted were prescription), or both. Finn had no problem with what people decided to dress themselves as, but for some reason, the combination of Chip’s appearance and demeanor just didn’t vibe well with him. _Vibe_. That was such a _Chip_ word to say.

 

Finn never thought he would ever feel the need to strangle this man, but today was a pretty frustrating day. When he woke up, he managed to stub his pinky toe into the kitchen counter. The bus was 10 minutes late, which made him late in dropping Yuki off at school, which then made him late to work. His foreman didn’t appreciate that. After suffering through the “do you know how easy it is to replace you?!” speech, he then discovered that two of the workers were no-call no-shows, so Finn had to pick up the slack. Meaning he had to work the manual labor of three men. After a grueling six and a half hours of sweating his ass off in a stupid yellow hardhat, he made his way over to the bank to transfer money from one account to another. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong. You see, Finn’s “other account” was made while he lived in Japan, which meant all his money was in Yen. His bank’s foreign transfer policy was somewhere between “cruel” and “downright stupid”. They would only let you transfer a limited amount each time, and after that, you had to wait a whole month before you could transfer more money. And he had two more days until he could withdraw again. But rent was due _today_.

 

_Stupid corrupt billionaires,_ Finn thought sourly. _Don’t they realize that when they do shady things with foreign bank accounts, it just brings the law down harder on the rest of us?_ Finn paused, and then shook his head at the thought. Of course they knew. They just didn’t care.

 

All of that led to right now, standing awkwardly outside his apartment building with Chip, who wore an expression that said ‘I’d rather be brewing my homemade craft beer than talking to you’.

 

“So, yeah. That’s it.” Chip drawled, body completely lax, despite the situation.

 

“You’re kicking me out? Just like that?” Finn shook his head in disbelief. “Listen, I’ll have the money on Monday. Can you please just wait until then?”

 

“Sorry man, but our company policy says that after three late payments, you have to be evicted.”

 

“ _What_ company policy? This place is privately owned. By you!”

 

“Hey man, chill out. To be honest, you’ve always been kinda shady. I mean, you dropped out of high school to have a baby–“

 

“She’s my little sister!”

 

“–and you’ve been in Japan doing who _knows_ what–“

 

“What?! I was working as a–“

 

“– _and_ , in the three months you’ve been here, you’ve been late on rent every time. It’s over, dude. I’ll give you until Monday to move out. See ya later.”

 

Before Finn could even say anything, which probably wouldn’t have made a difference anyway, Chip swaggered back into the beige brick building, no doubt going to check up on his brews.

 

Letting out a frustrated groan, Finn slumped his head into his hands in defeat. He dragged his hands down his face, then stood up straight, taking a much needed deep breath.

 

_Welp. Guess I’m homeless._ _Again._ Finn stared at his reflection in the window to his former apartment’s door. He looked like a mess. He was sunburnt under his eyes and on the tip of his freckled nose. His curly brown bangs clung to his forehead in sweaty helmet-hair fashion. He had pit stains, and his jeans were covered in cement dust. His work boots were… a dirty lost cause. And, oh? Was that a new pimple forming on his stubbly chin? It sure was. At least he already had the homeless down and covered.

 

_Damn, how am I gonna explain this to Yuki?_ Finn wondered. _Yuki…_

 

The poor girl had been through enough because of him, in Finn’s opinion. Their setup in Japan had been nice. Not lavish or perfect by any means, but it was just decent enough. When he first came to Japan, his plan was to just earn enough money for two plane tickets back to the states, but life has a way of interrupting any plans. He didn’t speak a lick of the native language, had no money in their currency, and on top of the tragedy that had brought him there in the first place, he had to take care of his newborn baby sister. There were many times where he wasn’t sure how they were going to survive, but he did all that he could, for Yuki’s sake.

 

Five years later, and Finn had a lucrative job, a fluent Japanese vocabulary, a home, and a beautiful little sister that had sprung up like a flower from the snow she was named after.

 

But then he got a call saying his grandmother had collapsed. He had left her on the farm all alone when he went to take care of Yuki in Japan. How could he have forgotten his home like that? He bought two tickets to Texas and was yet again greeted by tragedy. She had requested in her will to have no funeral, but to have her ashes spread at the intersection where she had met her daughter’s father, and so that’s what Finn did. As if dying wasn’t bad enough, his grandmother had left another gift for Finn to discover. She was over $500,000 in credit card debt; the farm was going to be repossessed by the bank; and she had been pending imprisonment for felony tax evasion. Thanks grandma.

 

So Finn was homeless. Again. He had no time to grieve, just like last time. He had to take care of his little sister alone, just like last time. But unlike before, he wasn’t a scared nineteen-year-old in a foreign country. He could make this work. He had to, for Yuki. After job listing after job listing, he found a construction company in Seattle, Washington that was desperate for workers.

 

That was three months ago. And after three moths of working his ass off at two jobs just to make ends meet, he was homeless. Again.

 

Finn checked his watch and swore. He had to pick Yuki up from kindergarten.

 

~

 

The kindergarten building was separate from the rest of the elementary school, sitting next to large brick building, like a kid’s playhouse next to an actual house. It was bright on the outside, with yellow and blue pastel stripes painted over the cement walls, and a bright red door with matching window shutters. Finn thought it was pretty cute.

 

The door was propped open with cutesy pink doorstopper. It smelled like Play-Doh and sticky sweet something inside. A bunch of little ankle biters ran around, chasing each other in a very loud game of tag. And then there was Yuki, sitting next to the teacher’s desk, looking down at her sparkly pink sneakers in shame.

 

_Uh oh._

Finn made his way over to his sister, dodging the tornado of kids to the best of his ability. As he approached, the teacher stood up from her desk chair with an uncomfortable smile on her pretty eastern Asian face.

 

“Afternoon, Miss Park,” Finn said, trying not to look over at his sister. “Is there… something I should know?”

 

The short woman sighed, clasping her hands together. She looked over at the little girl in the chair, who still hadn’t made a peep. “Do you want to tell him, or should I?”

 

Yuki said nothing. Her shoulders seemed to sag a little further.

 

“Yuki is in time-out for pushing another student down.”

 

Finn looked down at Yuki for confirmation. She fiddled with end of one of her dark braids and muttered, “I didn’t push her _that_ hard.”

 

“She has to wear a cast on her wrist now because of how bad it sprained. You’re lucky she didn’t break it.” Miss Park pushed her red cat eye glasses back up her bridge. She sat back down in her chair, her hands still clasped.

 

“Did she apologize?” Finn asked gently.

 

Miss Park’s face softened, looking over at Yuki. “She apologized as soon as it happened. The only reason her punishment isn’t as severe as it should be is because of how sincere she was. I’m honestly impressed by her manners.”

 

Finn laughed halfheartedly. “You _should_ be impressed. She’s a superstar.” Yuki lifted her head, smiling bashfully up at him.

 

“However,” Miss Park continued, “it’s school policy that I inform the parent– err, _guardian_ – of what happened, and that I request that you talk to her about where she went wrong, and how she can fix that behavior.”

 

“Can do.” Finn said confidently. “You ready to go, kiddo?”

 

Yuki hopped up from her chair, swinging her princess themed backpack over her shoulder. “Ready!”

 

He took her hand and led her out of the classroom, but not before noticing the stink eyes she received from some of the other kids.

 

~

 

“So,” Finn drawled, “Are you gonna tell me _your_ side of the story?”

 

Yuki beamed up at him. Finn made it a point letting her know that no matter what; she could always trust him with the truth, good or bad.

 

“Me and Shelly and Tasha were playing Disney princesses at recess, and I wanted to be Ariel. But Shelly said I had to be Mulan because I was Chinese. And I’m not! But she kept saying I was! And that Ariel can’t be Asian! And I got angry, so I pushed her.” She huffed in finality, clearly still upset at the argument. “But I didn’t…I didn’t mean to do it so hard. She fell on her hand. I’m not mad at her anymore, but she said…” she trailed off, looking down.

 

“She said…?” Finn prompted.

 

She took a shaky breath. “She… said she didn’t wannabefriendsanymore!” Yuki rushed out the last bit before she broke down into sobs. The other people on the sidewalk looked over in pity. Finn didn’t want Yuki to be looked at like that by strangers. Holding her small hand in his, he led her over in the direction of their favorite place in Seattle, Gas Works Park.

 

“Hey,” he whispered, going down to his knees so he could look her in the eyes. “Do you wanna get some ice cream?”

 

Yuki couldn’t stop her tears to speak, but she managed a weak nod. Finn grinned, pushing the edge of her bangs behind one ear, and strolled them along towards the park.

 

The frozen treat cart was parked next to the entrance. Finn ordered Yuki a cone of strawberry ice cream, as she was a big fan of pink colored food, and got himself some mint chocolate chip. They walked over to sit at the bench closest to the lake at the edge of the park, ice cream cones in hand. This spot had come to be their favorite place to go on Finn’s days off. Twenty acres of green space perfect for running around, and the view across the lake had the best look at the city. The staggering high rises formed an impressive skyline, with the small silhouette of the infamous Space Needle poking out from behind it. The waves of Lake Union were constantly at work, slapping the shore from the movements coming from the marina across the lake. The giant copper pipe structure of an abandoned coal processing plant sat dormant and abandoned at the tip of the shore, which sharpened into a sort of peninsula.

 

Yuki went to town on her ice cream cone, devouring it with great vigor, the likes of which could only be had by an emotionally exhausted five year old. She had pink cream all over her mouth, and a bit on her shirt. The tears on her round cheeks had dried in streaks, completely forgotten.

 

Finn grinned, perfectly content watching his little sister, who was busy annihilating her waffle cone. He felt so old for twenty-four. He remembered the day he first held Yuki in his arms, her body all pink and wiggly and fussy. He hadn’t been allowed to see his mother, as her body had already been moved to the morgue. He was jet-lagged and heartbroken, and he was sure that there was no way he could be happy about anything anymore. But Yuki held his finger in her squishy baby hand, and that was all it took for him to start sobbing, right there, in the middle of a foreign hospital. This unnamed sack of jelly was now all he had left of his mother. He promised himself on that day that he would do anything for this little screaming person in his arms. He would raise her right, with the thought of his mother always present in the corner of his mind.

 

Pretty heavy stuff for a teenager.

 

Yuki spent her first five years on this earth becoming cuter everyday. Well, she did in Finn’s opinion. She had so much personality, so much energy, for such a little kid. Her nails _always_ had to be painted, and her hair _had_ to have a least one braid in it. No exceptions.

 

“Hey!” Finn is pulled from his memories as he jolts from the shock of Yuki’s exclamation. “A fish just jumped from the water!”

 

“Whoa!” Finn cooed, feigning interest to humor Yuki. “That’s so cool!”

 

“They’re talking to us!” Yuki giggled, waving to the lake. Lo and behold, another fish sprang from the water and flopped back under.

 

Finn chuckled, dabbing the corners of Yuki’s mouth with a napkin. “Oh yeah? What are they saying, kiddo?”

 

“They’re saying, ‘Watch out Yuki!’”

 

“Really?” Finn asked, his voice dripping with a sarcasm that was completely lost his sister. “What should you watch out fo–”.

 

“Ah! Someone help!”

 

The siblings, startled by the sudden cry for help, whipped their heads around to look for the source of the scream. Based on the high pitch, Finn was sure it was a young woman.

 

Sure enough, over by the fence surrounding the copper pipe structures, a blonde woman was waving her arms frantically, trying to get what looked like a huge bird away from a stroller. The giant raptor beat its wings aggressively as it hovered just over the woman and her stroller, trying to snatch either one of them in its talons.

 

Time seemed to grind to a halt for Finn. He immediately felt the white-hot burning of fear in his stomach, threatening to climb into his throat. All he could hear was the speeding thud of his heartbeat, banging on his ears. _Why did it have to be a_ bird _?_ he bemoaned silently. _Lions, tigers, bears, dragons, sure! But a_ bird _?!_ He could practically _feel_ the sting of its claws raking across his stomach, reminding him of an incident from his past. _Don’t think about it… don’t think about it… don’t think…_

 

“What should we do?” Yuki asked, her tiny voice quivering with worry. She looked up to him, waiting with baited breath for his next words. The trust in her eyes jolted him with a shot of responsibility, personal reservations be damned.

 

“I’m gonna go help. You stay here!” She looked like she wanted to protest, most likely to insist that she come along, but he ran over to the lady with urgency before his sister could argue. The bird, which seemed to grow in size the closer Finn got, screeched and flapped its huge brown wings, trying to dive into the stroller. In a desperate attempt to protect her precious cargo, the woman shielded the stroller with her body.

 

Inspired by the woman’s bravery, Finn waved his arms at the bird, shouting and hollering, trying his best to scare the bird off.

 

He noticed two things when he did that. The bird? It was an owl. Not being an avid bird watcher, Finn didn’t know what type of owl it was. But he _did_ know that it had no business being at large as it was. The thing was as big as a refrigerator, its wingspan well over ten feet. Second, as if its _size_ wasn’t enough to worry about, Finn stared right into its crazed blood red eyes, hooded under angry spiky eyebrows. They seemed to glow with an evil and chaotic energy.

 

The owl, not surprisingly, wasn’t deterred by Finn’s interaction. In fact, the presence of Finn only seemed to make it _angrier_. Figures. It screeched and cawed, snapping with its beak and slashing with its talons. Finn put himself between the owl and the woman, putting an arm out to block it from getting close.

 

“Get out of the open, I’ll take care of this!” Finn urged the woman and her kid in the stroller.

 

“Bark!” the stroller replied.

 

From the corner of his eye, Finn could make out a small, tan-colored fluff ball in the stroller: a Pomeranian, no doubt. Before he had any time to roll his eyes at the way this woman treated her pets, the owl made a slash at his outstretched arm. Finn hissed in pain, retracting his arm quickly. Three thin red lines scratched across his forearm, and Finn decided he had had quite enough of this bushy-browed behemoth.

 

The owl flapped its great wings and went up, up, until Finn could have been convinced that it was a regular sized bird. Of course he knew what was coming. His mind buzzed and hummed, showing him all the ways that this owl could hurt him with its dive. In the foggy scenes he saw where he did nothing, he, well, things didn’t work out well for him. He picked the most probable, favorable outcome, and solidified his stance. The owl would dive, but Finn would be ready to sidestep and grab its meaty wing.

 

The owl started its bullet descent, and Finn’s muscles tensed, poised for his counterstrike. It was only about five feet from his head. But, before Finn could enact his plan, it squawked painfully and fell off to the side, knocked off course by… something. It lay on its side, wings askew awkwardly. Poking out of one of its angry red eyes was a thin, black arrow. A second later, the beast’s form began to dissolve in a whisp of yellow dust, leaving behind nothing but the arrow that had felled it.

 

_That confirms it, then_ , Finn rationalized quickly. _Monsters._

 

The unmistakable sound of war cries erupted from behind him, accompanied by the equally familiar, but more detestable, sound of even more dreaded owls coming from above. The chaos kicked off so quickly, Finn almost thought time around him was speeding up. Half a dozen people in black leather, wielding things like swords and spears and spiked bats, slashed and stabbed and swung at the flock of giant owls, like this kind of scenario was familiar to them.

 

Finn realized it probably was.

 

The smallest of the group stayed behind them and peppered the birds with whizzing arrows. Finn guessed that he had that person to thank for the save earlier.

 

The park was in chaos. The screeches from the giant owls battled with the grunts and shouts from the leather clad warriors. Finn saw one of the warriors, this one a woman with a large poofy afro, get slashed across the face by an angry owl’s talons. _Ouch, that had to hurt_ , he winced.

 

Finn was so caught up in the scene before him; he almost didn’t hear his own sister calling out to him.

 

“Finn! What do I do?” she cried out. She was standing on the bench, her little fists balled in determination. Finn suddenly felt like an idiot for forgetting to protect his sister.

 

“Stay there, I’m coming o–”

 

A shriek cut him off from answering. _The second time that’s happened today._ He turned to look, and saw the small archer being yanked off the ground, struggling in the clutches of a particularly large owl beast, which was saying something, considering these things averaged to the size of a Mini Cooper. This one was like… a Mondo Cooper. The archer – a teenaged girl, Finn could make out from squinting – wiggled and squirmed violently in the bird’s grasp, trying her absolute best to get free. It was no use. The owl let out a hideous screech and lifted the two of them up, up, and up.

 

One of the warriors poised to throw a spear at the beast, which appeared to be the last of the feathered nuisances left alive, but the afro-ed warrior interfered. The gash on her face looked deep, but also made her look pretty badass.

 

“Don’t!” she ordered, her arm blocking the spear-thrower. “You might hit her!”

 

Another screech came from the owl, now about fifty feet in the air. Finn couldn’t see what had happened from that height, but the girl must have done something to make the bird drop her.

 

She plummeted twenty feet before being caught by the back of her jacket. The owl had her again. In an act of desperation, the girl shucked herself out of the (now torn) jacket. Good news: she was free again. Bad news: she was about to become a pile of broken bones.

 

Finn’s mind buzzed again, swirling into a different image, and he could see a foggy, distorted scene of the owl catching her again, this time by the neck. He knew that had to be the most probable outcome, too, if something weren’t done to interfere with the owl. He was too far away from her to do anything. The owl had carried her over to the tip of the park. Nobody was over there except for…

 

“Yuki!” Finn shouted. “Get her!”

 

Now, most people wouldn’t place the life of a free-falling person in the hands of a five-year-old, but Finn wasn’t most people, and neither was his little sister. A flash of pink and pigtails, and she was there, almost ten feet in the air, crashing into the teenager, who made an _oof_ sound from the impact. They landed less than gracefully, sliding across the grass as they skidded to a stop, the teenager safe in the kindergartner’s arms. Audible gasps came from the direction of the rest of the warriors. Understandable. It wasn’t everyday that you saw a child with such an impressive bunny-hop.

 

Finn didn’t get a chance to exhale in relief before the owl screeched again, clearly not happy that its prey had gotten away – again. His mind buzzed helpfully, trying to show him the most probable scenarios that could come from the owl diving, but he ignored them. He didn’t need to know scene statistics anymore. _Yuki’s got this one_ , he assured himself.

 

And indeed she got it, if not in the most hands-on way possible. The owl dove face first at them, beak open. Finn was well over fifty yards away from them, their bodies looking like human-shaped ants to him. He could make out Yuki raising her arms just as the owl got to her. The next thing he saw was an explosion of yellow dust. Poor Yuki was covered in the stuff.

 

Finn was sprinting over to them before he even registered that his feet were moving. He reached his sister, who was powdered in yellow like an Easter Peep, and knelt before her. He grinned, happy to see her safe, and did his best to wipe off the monster residue from her face. She was smiling too.

 

“Did you see that?” Yuki gushed, practically bouncing where she stood. “You said ‘Go!’ and I was like ‘ _whoosh_ ’, and she” Yuki motioned casually to the teenager, who was still sat in awed silence, “was like ‘ _buhh_ ’ when I caught her, and the owl was like ‘Nah-ah’ and when he came down I just –”

 

“You can tell me all about it when we get home, kiddo,” Finn chuckled.

 

“I’m afraid that will _not_ be happening,” said a voice behind him. Finn turned, and saw the woman with the afro looming over him. Her expression was as serious as the gash on her face, which was starting to crust up. Finn hoped she got that cleaned up soon. “We need answers. You’re coming with us.” She held herself with such certainty and authority, Finn was almost tempted to answer ‘yes ma’am, whatever you say ma’am’.

 

However, Finn wasn’t the type to submit so easily. “Now, hold on a second,” he started, but was cut off abruptly by the woman.

 

“Do not presume to speak to me so casually, man.” She spat out the last word, like his existence as a man was the most disgusting thing she could fathom.

 

The rest of the warriors caught up to her, and Finn finally saw them up close. He gulped. They looked a lot less threatening when they were half a football field away. Including the teenager, who was still sitting next to Yuki, there were five of them. They were all wearing some variation of the same black leather get-up, as well as the same angry expression. They were also all women.

 

Noticing that last fact, a faint memory tugged and tickled at the back of his mind, but he was too exasperated to care about what it was. He also didn’t see why their gender was important. Still, his mind insisted it was.

 

Finn chose his words carefully this time, not wanting to irritate this woman again. “If we go with you to answer your questions, can you guarantee that you’ll let us go afterwards?”

 

She sighed, clearly not warm to the idea of having a civil conversation with Finn. “Of course you can go after we’re done. We don’t want you any longer than you’re needed.”

 

Okay, that one kinda stung. He felt a tug on his sleeve, and looked down at Yuki, who seemed very confused by the way things were progressing.

 

“What’s going on? Where are we going?” she asked.

 

The woman answered before Finn could get a sound out. “You’re going to our headquarters to answer a series of questions about the encounter you just witnessed. Afterwards, if you are deemed nonthreatening, you will go home.”

 

Finn shook his head. _Has this chick never spoken to a kid before_? He wondered. Yuki looked even more perplexed than she had originally.

 

He translated, “We’re gonna go with these nice ladies to their office, we’re gonna answer some questions, and then we’re gonna go home. Sound good?”

 

The gears turned in her little head, and she grinned. “ _Oooh_ , okay, I get it. Let’s go!”

**Author's Note:**

> The alternative title to this chapter was "Stupid Owls". 
> 
> Introducing Finn, a guy with Olympic levels of bad luck! A lot of questions are raised in this chapter, but worry not, they will be answered in the next one. Who doesn't like a good old-fashioned interrogation scene. 
> 
> I love criticism! All comments are good comments!


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